Tasmanian schoolteacher Kate Byrne is having an affair with the father of her most gifted fourth grader, Lucien. Her lover's wife has just published Murder at Black Swan Point, a true-crime story about the brutal slaying of a young adulteress in a nearby town. Kate herself has become so obsessed with the murder and so convinced that the published account has it all wrong that she sets about writing her own version -- this one for children, narrated by Australian animals. Though Lucien's father brings Kate to life sexually in encounters of escalating eroticism, he cannot dull her obsession. Fixated on the crime of passion, Kate is becoming less and less aware of the present and of how her behavior may align her fate with that of the dead girl. Chloe Hooper chillingly captures this young woman's unraveling in an intense, witty, superbly crafted novel.

The ninth title in this successful series. A factually accurate but hilarious look at the life of Leonardo Da Vinci as he mixes with the colourful set in Renaissance Italy From his passion for horses, to his painting of the Mona Lisa -- all is revealed. Leonardo da Vinci's life from 1470 to 1519 as seen through the eyes of one, Luigi Cannelloni, Leonardo's trusty assistant. From his Adoration of the Magi; his passion for the structure of horses; his painting of the Mona Lisa not to mention the highlife of Renaissance Italy -- all is revealed in an hilarious way. As with the other Lost Diaries, this is factually accurate but the fictional voice brings in the humour